Tragic Amy: 'It's a crocodile'

A post-mortem will today be carried out on the body of 18-year-old Amy Nicholls, the gap year student killed by a crocodile while swimming in a lake in Kenya.

It looks certain to confirm eyewitness accounts of the incident. Her body was recovered yesterday. One arm was missing. Elspeth Harley, 18, told how she was swimming feet away from Miss Nicholls in Lake Challa when the reptile attacked. She said: "Amy swam a stroke and turned around to face the bank. Then she started screaming. It was very high-pitched. I held out my hand to her but in a few seconds she disappeared."

Moments later Ms Nicholls, resurfaced, but, said Ms Harley: "She gave another scream, saying, 'It's a crocodile. It's got my feet.' Then she was whipped under and she was gone." They were in a group of 17 people who had travelled to the lake, in the crater of an extinct volcano in Tsavo West national park.

They decided to swim after both locals and guidebooks advised them it would be safe.

Ms Harley said: "The others said maybe we shouldn't go in but Amy said, 'Right, I'm going to swim with you or without you.' She was such a water baby. Amy just threw her towel off and jumped into the water."

Ms Nicholl's father Alan, 52, from Hadley Wood, Middlesex, flew to Kenya and identified his daughter's body moments after it was recovered yesterday. Today he was arranging to bring her home. A family friend said Ms Nicholl's mother, Pamela, 50, was "absolutely devastated".